A fast for peace
On August 15, 1947, celebrations across India marked the end of British rule. Mohandas Gandhi, the father of the country, boycotted all of them. Instead, he challenged the nation: “The 15th is the day of our trial. Observe a fast on that day.”
Last August I wrote three posts leading up to today’s: Gandhi’s preparation for independence, follwed by his making an offer to share a home with Shaheed Suhrawardy, a former governor about to leave for East Pakistan, to demonstrate that Hindus and Muslims could live together in peace. Their first night together was disrupted, but it had a cleansing effect on Suhrawardy. “Suhrawardy has been transformed,” Gandhi reported in a letter the day after the fast.
The fast for peace had worked; the shared self-sacrifice brought the people of Kolkata together. Even Gandhi was amazed. “Hindus and Muslims have become friends practically in a day.” The scene prompted his Bengali translator to recall World War One’s Christmas truce, which had taken place during the first year of trench warfare.
The feeling of friendship would last for weeks, leading the last viceroy of India to write Gandhi, “In the Punjab we have 55,000 soldiers and large-scale rioting on our hands. In Bengal our forces consist of one man, and there is no rioting…. [I must] pay my tribute to the One-man Boundary Force, not forgetting his Second in Command, Mr. Suhrawardy.”
By the end of August, the violence raging around the rest of the country began to seep into Kolkata, testing Gandhi’s faith in nonviolence. More on that in two weeks.
Seven years ago today, I accepted Gandhi’s challenge for the first time and started fastforpeace.org. (It was only later that I learned Gandhi had taken a medical exemption and drank juice during his fast.) Thanks to everyone who’s shared the fast with me and others around the world on the fifteenth of the month since then.
I continue to believe that this model of shared self-sacrifice can bridge the partisan divide in the United States, that Republicans and Democrats can put their differences aside with a truce. However, I’m also starting to believe that the forces trying to keep us divided will succeed in maintaining the status quo, and that my efforts are futile.
While I’ll continue to observe my own personal 30-day challenges, I’m going to stop promoting them. (Suggestions welcome for a new newsletter name.) These posts will continue, and for free. However, I’ve enabled paid subscriptions of $8/month on Substack, for those willing and able to support this work.
Today’s discussion question involves a different August 15. In 1942, Gandhi long-time secretary and friend Mahadev Desai passed away in their first week of incarceration at the Aga Kahn Palace. Is there someone whose passing you remember each year?